Virginia Lawmakers And Slavery Essay

The Virginia lawmakers attempted to control the behavior of the Africans in the colony very strictly. For starters, even if a slave was freed by their master they were not to be granted the same rights as a white citizen; however, they still had to pay taxes. The reasoning behind not letting freed slaves have equal rights was because the lawmakers did not want other freed slaves to join together and rebel against slavery. Furthermore, the lawmakers did not want the blacks to have the same rights as the whites because they would think they had power. If a freed slave had equal rights as whites other slaves would try anything to get free, including fighting their way to freedom. Lastly, slaves were not permitted to have weapons of any kind to defend themselves or leave their master’s property without a certificate of permission. Lawmakers did not want the slaves to use the weapons on their masters to rebel, or leave their master’s …show more content…
Firstly, if white man got a black woman pregnant both parties ended up being punished. The black woman would get whipped and the white man had to confess his sin and face punishment. The lawmakers did not want the blacks and whites to reproduce together because they were not considered equal. Next, if a slave resisted their master it was said that they would be punished in a violent manner. Many times the punishing of a slave would even lead to the murder of that slave. Slaves were considered to be the whites’ property; therefore, they were to be punished like an animal not a human being. To continue, if a slave left the property without a certificate of permission it was law that they had to be given 20 lashes by the police. Slaves simply did not have the right to leave property as they pleased because their master’s owned them and they told them where and when to go places. Severe punishments led to both parties, black and whites, being afraid to break any